The hallways will once again be filled with sculptures made of tape. This year, art students have begun creating 24 human tape models reflecting certain themes selected by the art students.
The creations started out as ideas and sketches. In small groups, the students had to figure out how they would portray their selected theme. The sculptures take a little over a month to plan, research, sketch and build.
“They had to figure out how to tell the story of the theme that they chose with their sculpture,” art teacher Jacqueline Pappas said.
The themes vary from dreams and nightmares to power and identity.
Students in Pappas’ Studio Art 1 class were split into groups of four with different roles for each member. Each team had to determine the responsibilities for its members, which included being the model, cutting tape from the body and putting the tape pieces together.
“It’s really fun,” freshman Amal Ahmed said. “It teaches us how to work hard and how to work with each other.” Ahmed’s team’s theme is identity.
Members start by wrapping clear tape around their model’s body part. One member then cuts the tape and removes it from the body. Since the tape will keep its shape, the team tapes the seam. Members will add more layers to strengthen the piece and the tape mannequins begin to take shape.
“Once [the sculptures are] done, we’ll display them around the school,” Pappas said.
The statues will be completed around late January to early February.
Locations for the artwork are still undetermined. Potential locations for the displays are the lecture hall and the front lobby. The models will be on display in the hallways for only a week.
Last year, the art department’s sculptures were influenced by the decision of the administration to introduce character pillars to the school.
Controversy surrounded the sculptures last year, as a few students chose to tamper with them to send out inappropriate messages. A warning was sent out to students, but it was too late. The character-building message was already lost on students.
“The problems we faced were the displays,” Pappas said. “People want to touch [the displays], it may cause problems to [the sculptures].”
Despite past issues, Pappas hopes that there won’t be any problems with the displays, and students will enjoy the hard work of their peers.
“We educate the students about the artwork and what it is,” Pappas said. “Hopefully this year we won’t have that problem when we display.”
